This year I tried 701 new perfumes. To keep that in perspective, it is about 30% of all new perfume released in 2018. The Top 25 below represents the best 3.6% of what I encountered this year

The Top 5 (Perfume of the Year Candidates)

5. Cartier Carat– The best mainstream release of 2018 it is a celebration of the skill of Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent. It is simply described as a transparent formula. What Mme Laurent put in the bottle was a faceted floral jewel which changed as you looked at each facet. A kaleidoscopic perfume that helped me embrace the potential of the transparent trend which is here to stay in perfume.

4. Providence Perfume Co. Vientiane– Independent perfumer Charna Ethier fused a jasmine rice tincture to a tower of sandalwood. It resulted in a perfume which gave me new insight into one of the most venerable notes in perfumery. It also is a testament to Ms. Ethier’s skill to shine a light into those spaces.

3.April Aromatics Irisistible– This is the culmination of all of the efforts perfumer Tanja Bochnig has produced over the years for her April Aromatics brand. Each release over the last couple of years has been better than the last. Irisistible will be a perfume Fr. Bochnig will find difficult to top. A floral rainbow with a rooty iris as the most brilliant band of color.

2. Neela Vermeire Creations Niral– Neela Vermeire has successfully found the perfume place where her Indian and French sensibilities overlap. It has produced one of the best independent perfume collections on the market. Mme Vermeire has worked exclusively with perfumer Bertrnad Duchaufour. For Niral they undertook the concept of capturing Tussar silk as a perfume. It is something I think could only have been made by a creative director and perfumer who have been working together for years. Niral flows in shimmering silken waves of iris that slither through the air opulently.

Aftelier Alchemy– Mandy Aftel looked back to her beginning which allowed Alchemy to confirm her vision has never strayed.

aromaM Geisha Botan– Maria McElroy composed a spring floral featuring peony; I wish more did it like this.

Avon Velvet– Best Bang for the Buck perfume on the list. Perfumer Gabriela Chelariu proves it’s the perfumer and not the ingredients in a lush fig-rose-patchouli perfume that smells like it belongs on the top shelf.

Blackbird Y06-S– Nicole Miller produced an envelope-pushing skanky jasmine and banana fragrance which I can’t forget.

Commodity Nectar– This brand has become the most reliable economical brand by allowing perfumers the freedom to create as they wish. Mathieu Nardin used that to create a summery neroli

Pekji Zeybek– The best new brand of 2018 goes to Pekji from Omer Ipecki. A strong debut collection of five perfumes is headed by this abstract perfume vision of the horse barn.

strangeloveNYC lostinflowers– Creative director Elizabeth Gaynes came home from a trip to India with a champaca extract called “joy oil”. When she asked perfumer Christophe Laudamiel to use it in a perfume it gave me a lot of joy.

Zoologist Tyrannosaurus Rex– There is a part of me that thinks creative director Victor Wong and perfumer Antonio Gardoni came up with the idea of a prehistoric jungle on fire as a joke. The perfume is no joke. It is a completely original perfume.

An extra 3.5%; or the 23 perfumes which just missed being on the list above

If there is one place most people encounter fragrance in their daily life it is in their use in laundry products. You might choose a scent-free detergent and fabric softener but the people around you probably do not. It is true for many that the smell of the musks in laundry detergent is how they define clean through their sense of smell. Those laundry musks made the leap to perfumery when the consumer wanted a “clean” fragrance. Because they are reminiscent of laundry detergent they also get criticized as smelling “cheap”. It is one of the reasons that a niche perfumer might be reluctant to go towards this style of perfume. I think it takes a certain amount of belief that you can find something interesting to bring to something so common. Independent perfumer James Heeley has taken this challenge with Heeley Blanc Poudre.

James Heeley

When the name was first released without any detail there were some who thought the “white powder” referred to in the name might be something more illicit. When the press release followed it says Mr. Heeley was “inspired by the bone pale fineness of French porcelain.” Mr. Heeley has put together a perfume of pale fineness, but porcelain isn’t what I think of while wearing Blanc Poudre. Instead it is that moment I open the dryer and get that wave of warmth carrying the scent of my “spring fresh” dryer sheet on top of warm cotton.

The white powder in Blanc Poudre is a beautifully restrained rice powder. It is not an obvious piece of the perfume because it is paired with the more prominent cotton linen ingredient. This is that smell of fresh linen given a very transparent overlay of powder. It is easy to lose it in the background of the linen, but it is one of those grace notes in a perfume which makes a difference. In the same kind of deftly placed style Mr. Heeley threads through some of the synthetic florals. These are the florals which exude their floral nature minus anything, like indoles, which would distract. It is a classic representation of a commercial spring flower scent In the hands of someone clumsily adding this to a perfume it would come off trite. Mr. Heeley uses the florals and the rice powder to create a weave of fragile filaments over the linen. The final prominent note is the use of those laundry musks in the base. Together they give off that warmed fabric accord. Just he did with the other ingredients it is precise uses of sandalwood and vanilla which add texture to the overall construct.

Blanc Poudre has 12-14 hour longevity and moderate sillage.

I know it will be easy to dismiss Blanc Poudre as something that smells like laundry. If you do that you will miss out on one of the most cleverly constructed perfumes of 2018. Not everything has to be full of bombastic portent. Mr. Heeley has dared to show the beauty found in the subtlety of the mundane.